Greetings all. I need advice.
The best way to put it is that I have prevented the successful hatch of a whole lot of young turkeys. It's discouraging, and it hurts.
Of 15 eggs that I've incubated, 8 made it to lockdown, one hatched unassisted but had neurological issues and died at 4 days; one hatched with assistance and is fine, four died in the hours just before they should have hatched, without pipping, and two are still in lockdown but show no signs of life. On one still in lockdown, the air cell never shifted, it still sits at the fat end of the egg. The other egg's air cell has moved. I have been putting them in lockdown with the air cells in proper location, on their sides, to the position that the deepest dip in the air cell is at the top.
Postmortems show that those that died before hatching were a mix of issues, including one malposition (head at small end and crammed in too tightly to move), two had not yet absorbed all the yolk but just died (no signs of infection, everything seemed normal), and one had pipped internally but was so tight in the shell that it seemed that it could not move around to pip externally. It cheeped for a while, then stopped. After 24 hours I opened the air cell end and found a little beak that just couldn't reach the air.
I have nine more eggs in my incubator, and my hen is already decreasing her rate of lay so this may be the last chance. I have only one young hen, and she doesn't show any broody tendencies, so incubation is the only chance. My chickens are non-broody production reds, so I can't induce one of them to adopt a clutch.
I'm not yet "hardened" to the idea that hatching often doesn't work. I feel responsible for every one of these little lives that I am trying to advance. Failing them is hard. It's easier if they fail in the first ten days, that could be caused by many things, but if they make it 24 days but not 28/hatch that is my failure.
From those of you who have been hatching a long time...can you please advise on when (not calendar days, but stage of development, a description or candling pic would be great) at which to move eggs to lockdown so that the chicks can position themselves? Is it better to put eggs in egg cups, fat end up, or to lay on their sides like they would in the nest? When to be concerned if you hear cheeping but no external pip? When to give up if you see no movement or hear no cheeping in lockdown? I know that most of the threads advise not interfering with the hatch. But a 6% overall hatch rate, 25% from lockdown hatch rate, I'd say that is pretty abysmal.
Both my incubator and hatcher are Little Giants. Incubator is forced air with turner, hatcher is still air. I have Acu-Rite digital thermometer/hygrometers in both, that were checked against each other and against wall thermometer/hygrometer before placing in the incubator and hatcher.
The best way to put it is that I have prevented the successful hatch of a whole lot of young turkeys. It's discouraging, and it hurts.
Of 15 eggs that I've incubated, 8 made it to lockdown, one hatched unassisted but had neurological issues and died at 4 days; one hatched with assistance and is fine, four died in the hours just before they should have hatched, without pipping, and two are still in lockdown but show no signs of life. On one still in lockdown, the air cell never shifted, it still sits at the fat end of the egg. The other egg's air cell has moved. I have been putting them in lockdown with the air cells in proper location, on their sides, to the position that the deepest dip in the air cell is at the top.
Postmortems show that those that died before hatching were a mix of issues, including one malposition (head at small end and crammed in too tightly to move), two had not yet absorbed all the yolk but just died (no signs of infection, everything seemed normal), and one had pipped internally but was so tight in the shell that it seemed that it could not move around to pip externally. It cheeped for a while, then stopped. After 24 hours I opened the air cell end and found a little beak that just couldn't reach the air.
I have nine more eggs in my incubator, and my hen is already decreasing her rate of lay so this may be the last chance. I have only one young hen, and she doesn't show any broody tendencies, so incubation is the only chance. My chickens are non-broody production reds, so I can't induce one of them to adopt a clutch.
I'm not yet "hardened" to the idea that hatching often doesn't work. I feel responsible for every one of these little lives that I am trying to advance. Failing them is hard. It's easier if they fail in the first ten days, that could be caused by many things, but if they make it 24 days but not 28/hatch that is my failure.
From those of you who have been hatching a long time...can you please advise on when (not calendar days, but stage of development, a description or candling pic would be great) at which to move eggs to lockdown so that the chicks can position themselves? Is it better to put eggs in egg cups, fat end up, or to lay on their sides like they would in the nest? When to be concerned if you hear cheeping but no external pip? When to give up if you see no movement or hear no cheeping in lockdown? I know that most of the threads advise not interfering with the hatch. But a 6% overall hatch rate, 25% from lockdown hatch rate, I'd say that is pretty abysmal.
Both my incubator and hatcher are Little Giants. Incubator is forced air with turner, hatcher is still air. I have Acu-Rite digital thermometer/hygrometers in both, that were checked against each other and against wall thermometer/hygrometer before placing in the incubator and hatcher.
Last edited:
